How many pictures can one mama take of her kid eating watermelon? Apparently A LOT! But she's so cute! This was her first successful (non choking) time eating watermelon independently! Woot! That's an area we've worked really hard on and we're finally at a much better place!
It's hard to believe this girl will be THREE in September! If she is anything like my other two girls, 2 years old was a walk in the park compared to 3 years old. If that's the case, please pray for us! This girl keeps us on our toes!
I wish I could tell you what happened to her nose, but I really have no idea. She's going to be the kindergartener in stitches on picture day, I can picture it now!
She has a mind of her own, and that's an understatement! I never knew such a little person could challenge me so much, nor did I know I could ever love such a crazy little person the way I love her! I'm learning from this girl....I'm learning a lot!
Her wild emotions means she feels deeper than most....a gift, I think.
She has a spirit that is unbreakable, even after a 30 minute tantrum she has a way of putting a smile on her face and starting over from that moment on. I'm still working on my ability to do the same (the smile part, not the tantrum, because I've got that part down)!
Sofia is slow to warm up in new situations and she makes others earn her trust and work for her attention, but when you get a glimpse of the buried treasure inside her heart, you know you've hit the jackpot! She's still slowly crawling out of her shell.
She is opinionated....very very opinionated, about everything. Lucky for me, she is of the opinion that she has the best Mama in the world-so good in fact that she can't stand for me to be out of her sight for more than 2.5 seconds....and she lets the world know when her Mama has left the room, oh yes she does!
She is so confident and so uncertain all at once.
But when she's confident, and with Mama or Dada by her side, and when she's good and ready, she dives in head first, full of joy!
That mischievous spark has not left her eyes!
Neither has her stubborn streak determination.
Sofia and I could not be more different from one another and yet the Lord knew somehow we couldn't live without each other!
Sofia's separation anxiety has gotten a bit more intense since we moved and she's still trying to figure this whole thing out! She loves her new house and the huge yard full of hills! With her sensory processing disorder, she needs lots of proprioceptive input and she's getting better about finding appropriate opportunities to meet those needs. She was pushing this very heavy car through the grass tonight after dinner!
Just don't, for the love of all that is good in this world, don't ask her to touch shaving cream, or really even LOOK at it!
"I will not look. I will not look. I will not look (at the teeny tiny miniscule amount of shaving cream on my tray)!"
Promise, I'm not being a mean Mama. Kids with SPD need opportunities to train their brains to process sensory input in a regulated way. Sofia is extremely tactile defensive, but little by little we make progress! Why is this important? It's important so she learns to interact with her world on a daily basis without breaking down due to sensory avoidance. Think foam soap in restrooms, think eating a messy sandwich or meal, think washing your hair, etc. There are so many daily activities that require us to interact with our environments through our tactile senses. And that is my PSA on SPD for today :) My goals with new sensory activities start very small for her. Just watching her sisters play with shaving cream was very distressing for Sofia. So that was the goal today. She smelled the shaving cream and also allowed me to help her touch a very small amount, hand over hand, for 10 seconds.
She's really starting to babble a lot more and attempt words. She is a follower-only of other children, though, not adults ;) She will do anything her sisters do, so often if I want her to do something I use them as peer models and she will try new activities that way too! So she tries to say all the words her sisters say and lately she has started talking a lot more to us. She has a conversational tone and she clearly knows what she is saying but we haven't a clue. She just laughs and laughs! She has really been loving learning her letters lately and reading "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom." She is such a smart cookie!!
Her curls have returned for summer!
We've decided not to rush into preschool with this little lady, so once she turns 3 in September we'll lose our in home therapies and probably continue with some low key outpatient speech therapy and I'll work with her a lot at home where she's most comfortable. She needs a year to just be the baby and continue building trust outside of her family at her own pace.
We love our crazy beautiful Sofia girl, or Sofi-J as we like to call her!
